Biden widens party influence with pact on joint fundraising

Joe Biden is expanding his influence over the Democratic Party with a new fundraising deal and a leadership shuffle at the Democratic National Committee.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and the DNC on Friday began a joint fundraising pact that will allow wealthy donors to contribute up to $360,600 to the party’s fall campaign, a total far exceeding the $5,600 maximum that donors can give directly to Biden’s campaign.

Additionally, longtime Democratic power player Mary Beth Cahill will take over management of the DNC, replacing Seema Nanda as chief executive officer under party chairman Tom Perez. Cahill, who managed John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, already has been a quiet force during Perez’s tenure, leading Democrats’ primary debate process and helping plan the summer convention, among other tasks.

“Our goal is to ensure that we put Joe Biden in the best position possible to beat Donald Trump, and this joint fundraising agreement allows us to do just that,” Cahill said in a statement Friday.

“The DNC has built an organization that has proven it can win up and down the ballot, and that is exactly what we will do in November.”

Democrats have lagged Republicans in fundraising throughout the 2020 presidential cycle, with President

Trump having spent months raising huge sums for his reelection campaign and the party. The Republican National Committee ended the first quarter of 2020 with almost $250 million stockpiled, between four and five times as much as Biden and the national Democrats.

That gap could put increasing pressure on the kinds of donors who can max out to the party and the nominee under the new agreement.

Biden’s deal does not yet include state parties, but DNC officials said those talks are ongoing. The idea is that the money from top donors can be distributed among Biden’s campaign, national party operations such as boosting the voter file that candidates use to contact potential supporters, and state parties’ coordinated campaigns that are designed to turn out Democratic voters.

Nominees typically take over operations of the national party, even if indirectly. Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, is a former top DNC staffer. And Cahill, given her experience with Kerry in 2004, is familiar with the dynamics between a nominee and the party.

Scott Olson / Getty Images Former Vice President Joe Biden conducts a virtual campaign appearance on March 13 for supporters in Chicago.